Small caps recover
The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) has bounced back after falling into the red on news of a decline in pending U.S. home sales. At 1:23 p.m. ET, the small-cap index had climbed 4.68 points, or 0.68%, to 697.17. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) was up 18.94 points, or 0.16%, to 12,219.04.
Small-cap stocks are again posting solid gains after a brief foray into negative territory on news that December pending home sales declined a more-than-expected 1.5%, according to the National Association of Realtors.
That brought out the bears and the Russell 2000 dropped into negative territory at about 11:30 a.m. ET.
But stocks didn’t stay down for long, even though today’s economic news shows a weaker-than-expected drop in weekly jobless claims and poor retail sales in January.
One of the top gainers among small-cap companies is computer hardware marketer PC Mall, Inc. (Nasdaq: MALL), which is surging on news that fourth-quarter profit more than doubled.
Shares of network infrastructure products maker Echelon Corp. (Nasdaq: ELON) are also rising on news that fourth-quarter revenue jumped more than 300%.
On the flip side, EarthLink, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK) posted a net loss but shares of the Internet service provider are nevertheless rising because the result represents a narrowing compared to a wider loss a year earlier.
